Improvement in organs, harmoniums



PATIENT @rarer VILLIAM DAWTES, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN ORGANS, HARWlONlUh/l, 8u).

Specitication forming part of Letters Patent No. QllP, dated February2T, 1866.

To all whom fit may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM DAWES, of No. 2 Ridge Terrace and No. 56lade Lane, both in Leeds, in the county of York, England, engineer andcommission agentasubject of the Queen ot' Great Britain, have inventedor discovered new and useful Improvementsin Organs, Harmoniums, andother Musical nstruments; and l, the said WILLIAM DAwEs, do herebydeclare the nature ot the said invention, and in what manner the same isto be performeed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and bythe following' statement thereof-that is to say:

My invention consists of a novel and peculiar arrangement andconstruction ot' certain parts of organs, harmoniums, and such likekeyed instruments, whereby the player is enabled to give a inoi'eperfect accent or expression to the air or soprano, especially in fullor harmonized music. This I effect by causing' one or more ranges orranks of pipes, tongues, or vibrators, (stops,) as the case may require,to sound or give automatously the upper or soprano note only; however,many notes may, at the same time, be used (played) by the player, asheretofore, in producing a full volume ot' harmony upon the instrument.l in some cases obtain this before-named effect by couping, in apeculiar manner, one part or portion of the instrument to anotherpart-say, for instance, the swell-organ to the great organ, or viceversa-but instead of doing this in the usual manner, or with theordinary pneumatic lever-conpler at present in use for coupling onesection or portion of an organ to another, I employ a peculiararrangement ot' coupler, (see Figures l, 2, and 3,) so constructed thatby its action the air or sopra-no note only shall or can be transmitted,given out, or made to speak; or, in other words, all notes below the airor soprano note of the piece or music being performed shall, in thewind-chest or organ to which this coupler conveys or transmits theaction from the keys, close or become dumb or silent, while the top orupper note ot the chords or harmony, which constitutes the air orsoprano ot' the piece or music, is sustained, as before stated, similarto a single note or solo instrument; and it may be necessary to explainthat in thus carrying out or applying my invention-that is, with thecoupler--l prefer making the saidqiioupleron what is technically knownas the pneumaticlever principle, but considerably moditied, so as toembody the novelty ot this my said invention, and to this end or purposel use an entirely new or different arrangement of the small inlet orleading valves or pallets, (see Figs. l to 9,) so formed and constructedthat the condensed or compressed air employed to actuate the levers iscaused to pass through or from one valve to the next. in succession,downward or in the direction from right to let't, or from treble to bassof the keys ot' the instrument, so that this coupler wind-chestcontaining these valves or pallets, or thc seats in which they work,instead ot` being made in one long chamber or chest, as heretofore,is,as it were, divided into a series of separate small chambers, a a, onefor each valve, pallet,or note, these chambers communicating with eachother by openings or perforations l) l), so placed that the sliding orope-ning ot' any one or more ot' the valves or pallets, by pressing downits corresponding key, shall close the said openings or perforations inthe division next below itself. as at z z, and thus the communicationfrom one chamber to the other through the whole or entire series iscomplete or continuous only so long as t-lie keys are impressed, so thatin playing upon the instrument the continuity ot' this wind-chest orseries ot' chambers and the compressed air therein ceases at oriininediately below the upper top or soprano note ot' the music, asindicated by the arrows in Figs. 2, l2, and 13, all notes below thisbeing neutralized or silenced in consequence of this, the soprano note,having, by the closing ot' the apertures b I), eut ott' thecommunication and supply of compressed air from them, although itselfretaining these, and with them its powers ot' action and voice. In somecases l prefer using for these valves or pallets a speciallyconstructedV-shaped slide-valve possessing the beforeaiamed peculiarities. (SeeFigs. @L to 9.) This new single note or soprano coupler, when placed soas to give the air or soprano upon the swell-organ, or upon any portionmade to swell, enables the player, by the use of the swell-pedal, whileplaying full harmony to bring out or accent ad Zibztztm the air orsoprano only otl any portion or passage ot' the music he is performing,as though a tinte, cor

nopean, or other similar sin gle-note instrument were used for thepurpose by an additional or separate player. In some cases I arrangethis single note or soprano coupler to give out the octave note above orbelow the air or soprano note, or both, in addition to the directunisons, by the employment of levers from the said coupler similar tothe sub and super octave levers at present in use with ordinarycouplers, and thus produce automatously upon one part or section of aninstrument the air or soprano in pure octaves, without chords orharmony, with a power and effect approaching the human voice, while theother parts or sections of the same instrument are giving the fullchords or harmony, as heretofore.

I also, iu some cases, produce the beforenamed effect by arrangingpallets and grooves or channels in or to one or more of the ordinarywind-chests, (see Figs. 10, l1, and 12,) so that their pipes, tongues,or vibrators shall speak or sound the air only when the ordinary coupleris being used in connection with thc sepallets and wind-chest, bycausing the top or soprano note to shut off or silence all notes belowitself, similar to the before-named coupler. (See Z Z, Fig. 12.) Eachtop or soprano note, while it silences all notes below or to the left ofitself, so long as it constitutes the air or soprano of the music, hasalso the power to restore or allow the speaking of any note below itselfwhen it may become the top, air, or soprano note ofthe piece or music.

To render this last-named method of carrying out my invention clear andunderstood by all readers of my specification, it must be explained thatthese before-named pallets and grooves or channels may be appended tothc ordinary wind-chest to feed or open into the back ends of thewind-grooves underneath the pipes, (sec Figs. 10. 11, and 12,) and,being similarly constructed to the before named small or couplerwind-chest as regards the silencing of all but the top or upper note, itwill, when used instead of the ordinary windchest and pallets, give outthe air or soprano note only on that portion of the instrument insteadof the full chords or harmony, as heretofore, the two sets of valves orpallets, old and new, being so arranged that one set only of them can becoupled to the keys or used at one and the same time.

In applying my invention to some organs, harmoniums, or piano-fortes, Isometimes obtain the before-named effect by adding, as a separateportion for this purpose, one or more ranges or ranks of pipes, tongues,or vibrators to the upper or treble portion of the manuals or keys ofthe instrument, these being so arranged as to be similarly actuatedthatis, to give the air or soprano note only-either by means of thebefore-named coupler, the arrangement of pallets and grooves orehannelsin the wind-chest similar to Figs. 11, 12, and 13, a stop-check ordamper action in or against the mouths or other parts ofthe pipes,tongues, or "ibrators, (see Figs. 141C and 15,) or any other mechanicalor automatous means or method whereby the object and effect ofmyinvention can be realized.

Having thus described and shown thenature of my said invention, andthemanner in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, Iwould observe that I do not confine or restrict myself to the precisedetails or arrangements which I have described or referred to, as manymodifications and variations may be made therefrom without de viatingfrom the principles or main features of the said invention but What Iconsider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the inventionsecured to me by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent, is-

The giving an improved or increased accent or expression to organs,harmoniums, and other harmonious keyed instruments byimparting to themthe mechanical capability of giving or sounding` automatously, the air(soprano) or melody only additionally, upon one or more parts, portions,or sections, While the other parts of the vsame instrument are giving orsounding the full chords or harmony, as heretofore, both parts orsections receiving at the same time the same rst motion, action, orinfluence from the keys and player.

WILLIAM DAWES.

Witnesses:

THos. B. TURNER, Tios. GRIsDALL, J r.

